Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson on Thursday said she’s launching a bid for chair of the Democratic National Committee, entering a crowded field calling for seismic change to the organization.
The self-help guru, who ran twice for president, said in a video she could bring expertise to the role.
She contended she understood “why we lost it,” that voters didn’t feel that Democratic candidates had their backs on key issues like health care and the economy and that many were depressed because of “bad public policy.”
“We need to transform, in a way, we need to reinvent the Democratic Party in order to counter what MAGA is bringing to the table,” Ms. Williamson said. “There’s a collective adrenaline rush in all of that, and we have to create our own massive psychological and emotional appeal for the American people.”
In the political sphere, she most recently ran against President Biden for the Democratic nomination, suspending and unsuspending her campaign this year.
Her campaign for the White House focused on a push for Medicare for all, tuition-free college and guaranteed sick pay. She also called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, reparations for African Americans and an end to the war on drugs.
Other contenders for DNC chair are former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Minnesota Democratic Party Chair Ken Martin, Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler, New York state Sen. James Skoufis and former Maryland Senate candidate Robert Houton.
Each candidate has called for some form of change to the organization after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. Most of the contenders have called for a post-mortem analysis on what went wrong in races where Democrats typically had more money and manpower on the ground.
Another dark-horse candidate is Robert V. Brannum, a liberal activist who last year ran unsuccessfully for chair of the District’s top progressive grassroots organization, D.C. for Democracy. Mr. Brannum previously held a post as commissioner in the District’s advisory neighborhood commission in Ward 5.
The candidates are running to replace DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, whose four-year term ends Feb. 1 and who hasn’t endorsed a candidate. He contended at a recent speech that Democrats should not abandon “identity politics.”
While many of the candidates vying for Mr. Harrison’s job argue that an in-depth look into the organization’s and party’s failures would help chart the DNC’s future, none have gone as far as Ms. Williamson to suggest that Democrats need to create their own version of Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
“Donald Trump is a 21st century political phenomenon, and we need to become one too. And I feel that if I’m in there, we’ll meet him, toe-to-toe,” Ms. Williamson said. “Same kind of energy, same kind of adrenaline, same kind of political and emotional power, and then we will have a very good year a couple years from now, an even better year four years from now, because Donald Trump will have met his match.”
• Seth McLaughlin contributed to this story.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.